Family Rituals
by littlemsbookworm
Summary: It's tea time again in the Layton household, and this time the professor has decided to teach Luke and Flora all he knows. Oh dear...


Professor Layton had many interesting rituals, but none was quite as revered as teatime. The professor treated that special hour each day almost like a religion, and he strived to make each tea time perfect. With the household additions of first Luke and then later Flora, it dawned on him that he was getting on in years, and he decided that it was time to pass on what he had learned to a new generation. Unfortunately, as his own personal "new generation" was slightly overactive and _very_ prone to disaster, he knew it would be a challenge. Hershel Layton was determined however, so he set out to teach his young apprentice and protégée all he knew.

He decided to start slow, teaching them how to mix the proper ingredients first, but even this turned into a challenge. Luke, overly eager as usual, proceeded to mix many more ingredients than needed, to an amount that even the professor couldn't tell everything apart, and there was no room for water in the teapot when he put his concoction in it. Flora managed to use a proper amount, but how she managed to put cayenne peppers and sardines in the mix when they weren't even in the room, let alone on the table, was a mystery even the great professor couldn't solve.

When they had at last succeeded in making blends that would not result in a call to poison control, it was time for the next lesson: brewing. Since this component ran the risk of fire damage, especially where Flora was concerned, the professor needed to be extra careful. He decided that not only would they all wear protective gloves, but also that they would only put the heat on low. Though this would take more time, he decided that it was worth the wait to avoid potentially burning the house down. Although at first these measures seemed effective, caution could only go so far, and whether or not he wanted to the professor had to admit he was learning new things even he didn't know about tea brewing. The first was that teaching two children how to make tea was a great deal more difficult than he had imagined, secondly that cayenne peppers made a fire much, _much_ larger when spilled into it, and thirdly, despite his measures, a visit to the dry cleaners and the paint store would be necessary after this was all over.

After cleaning up the mess as best he could, reproaching Luke for his ungentlemanly comment of "Wow Flora! I never knew you could make tea shoot out of a kettle like that!" and assuring a distressed Flora that it wasn't her fault that the kettle exploded and that the stains would come out his clothes and off the ceiling eventually, they moved on to the next step: pouring. As Flora was still a bit shaken up from the previous step, he decided to let Luke try this first. "Now Luke, remember, slow and steady..."

"No worries professor! Slow and steady is my middle name!" the young boy said confidently, smiling up at the professor, and at the same time while managing to pour slowly, missing the cup as well and spilling tea all over the table. Seeing the look of distress on his mentor's face, Luke looked down. "Aah…I'm sorry professor!" Hershel only sighed. 'Flora? Would you care to try?"

"Uh no professor, that's alright. I think I've made enough of a mess as it is…" she said, glancing again up at the ceiling.

Deciding that the situation couldn't get much worse, they moved on to the final task: drinking the finished tea. Through some miracle, it wasn't as terrible as he had feared, and the professor started to think that maybe the day wasn't a complete waste after all. As they settled back with their finished product, Flora spoke up.

"Professor?" she asked, looking up from her empty cup.

"Luke, you know a gentleman doesn't slurp his tea- yes Flora? What is it?"

"I think that in return for teaching us how to make tea, and for all the uh…mess we caused, Luke and I should clean all the cups for you! Come on Luke, let's go!" She stood up, and grabbing the cups, teapot, and a less than enthusiastic Luke, headed towards the kitchen.

"Flora," the professor called after her anxiously, "you really don't have to-"

_**Crash!**_

_Oh dear._

As the professor slowly stood up to stop the chaos starting in the kitchen, he sighed and flashed a weary smile. It seemed this was the beginning of a very…interesting new era of teatime.

**Thanks for reading! :D**


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